5 Tips for making your child’s birthday party successful!

In over 12 years of doing children’s birthday parties, I’ve done over 3000 parties and entertained around 30,000 children! I have vivid memories of awesome parties, and unfortunately, some disastrous ones too… For some, planning a child’s birthday party is a breeze, for others, a nightmare. With my 12 + years experience, I’ve come up with 5 tips that will make your life easier and will help you create a successful party for your child. (Ages 4-8)

Princess Stephanie’s 5 tips to a successful children birthday party!

Chose a theme– it makes everything so much easier! You can focus your activities, venues, entertainers, decorations, snacks, cake, etc. all around your theme. Make sure it’s a theme your child likes- not you 😉

Take into consideration your child’s personality – Keep in mind this is your child’s party… not yours, not their friends. And by this I do not mean get them everything they want! You still control the show, but if you want your child to enjoy his/her birthday, the theme should be decided together, and based on her/his current interest. Also keep in mind the type of personality they have: if they are shy, don’t invite 25 kids. Maybe a smaller scale party is better for them. And what was good for the first born, might not be what the second born wants.

Shorter is better! My suggestion is to keep kids’ birthday parties from 2 to 2.5 hours. Anything over 3 hours is a recipe for disaster. Activities & Entertainment should be no longer 1.5hours. Kids attention span at that age is short. This is party, kids are suppose to have fun, the last thing you want to do is discipline kids because they are not paying attention or participating in the activity. 30minutes for food & cake is more than enough! Kids are so excited, that eating is usually the last thing on their mind! Very rarely have I seen kids sit more than 20 minutes at the table for snacks and cake!

Hire specialized kids’ entertainers– You might think that the kids will be able to entertain themselves for 1hour, but I guarantee that after 15 minutes of running around the house, screaming and yelling, and fighting will occur. Kids need to be busy with an activity. And unless you are a teacher or you have a natural knack for dealing with kids, being responsible for entertaining 12- 5yrs old kids will drain the energy out of you and You won’t enjoy this wonderful day that is your child’s birthday. There are people out there who specialize in making your kids party a memorable one. Use them! You’ll thank me later!

It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be fun! Kids don’t even know what perfection is! They don’t care if the number of balloons is uneven because a few were popped. They don’t care if lunch is only cheese pizza because the veggie one burned. They probably didn’t even see that the magician has a whole in the bottom of his pants! Why? Because they are having FUN! Because the party is all about them, and they are being entertained, and laughing and having fun with their friends! Bottom line, as long as your child has a smile on their face, you did your job. And there’s no reason why you can’t sit down, relax and just enjoy the party yourself!

For more information on how to plan an amazing party, look for Princess Stephanie’s book, Planning the Perfect Birthday Party, coming out this fall 2017.